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The Remedial Right of Secession in International Law

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The Remedial Right of Secession in International Law The Remedial Right of Secession in International Law JOEL DAY University of Denver INTRODUCTION Secession and self-determination are two of the most contested issues in international affairs. Even as President Wilson endorsed the concept of self- determination, his own Secretary of State expressed concern that it would escalate into an unmanageable cascade of instability. The ensuing debate culminated in a widely accepted view articulated by Secretary-General Thant in 1970: “the United Nations has never accepted, and does not accept, and I do not believe it will ever accept the principle of secession of a part of its Member State” (UN Chronicle 2). Many scholars have also declined to interpret self-determination as an enforceable right, separating self-determination from the concept of partition. But is this really settled law? Does international practice really decline support of secession? Recent endorsement of South Sudan’s breakaway and the internationally administered secession of Kosovo raise doubts. A study of this nature is timely, considering that ethnonational secessionist claims undergird almost 50 intra-state armed conflicts worldwide and secession is more common today than ever before. Considering Hewitt, Wilkenfeld and Gurr’s study reveals that, “independence minded groups are more likely to fight wars than groups with other objectives,” it is vital that scholars and practitioners embrace creative conflict resolution strategies for cases in the future” (Hewitt et al. 3). The purpose of this article is to identify the exact legal standing of secession, situate current practice in the context of secession theory, and then ultimately determine how the international community should respond to secession in the future. Section one reviews the existing instruments of international law that deal with the issue of secession. This sets the foundation for an institutionally centered discussion of secession, as opposed to ethereal philosophising. The nature of POTENTIA 2012 I 19 DAY I THE REMEDIAL RIGHT OF SECESSION IN INTERNATIONAL LAW the subject is more productively discussed in an institutional vernacular, focused upon law and precedent. I argue that precedents set by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have understood self-determination as the externally recognised self-governance of an insular, often oppressed, minority. Simply put, the ICJ has sanctioned secession as a tool to punish human rights violators and free oppressed peoples. After identifying current practices of secession, section two proceeds as a discussion of first principles, centering on the theoretical debate between those who maintain secession as a primary right of a people and those who view it as a last ditch effort to preserve human rights. The section uses the international legal concepts of erga omnes and jus cogens as criteria to determine which school of thought most successfully upholds human rights. The crux of the matter is whether possessing a state is a universal right or if groups may only secede in response to human rights violations. Using erga omnes and jus cogens in this manner provides institutionally based criteria to judge philosophically-rooted schools of thought. The ultimate finding is that an ‘ideal’ formulation of secession is not so distant from the current legal practice. Section three builds on this conclusion and charts a path forward, linking theory and practice together for better policy in the future. WHERE ARE WE? SECESSION AND THE COURTS The legal discussion of secession is informed primarily by the rise of self- determination as a legal principle. In fact, there are competitive versions of self- determination. During the decolonisation process, self-determination was associated with a colonised people being freed from colonial institutions and establishing their own territorial government. However, examples soon emerged that confounded this definition. After the British left India, it became clear that Pakistan and India had divergent aims, which culminated in a violent partition; Bangladesh would later split from Pakistan in a similarly bloody manner. These examples, combined with the partition of North and South Sudan in 2011, indicate that a strictly anti-colonial definition is far too limiting; peoples with no prior history of direct colonial rule have seceded and received recognition. One could thus argue that secession is a function of external self-determination regardless of colonial past. On the other hand, one could argue that self-determination has merely internal qualities such as the right of a people to freely associate within their group, even if they are in a multiethnic state (Moore 1-14). For instance, Jan Klabbers has stated that self- determination has “evolved into a right of peoples to take part in decisions affecting their future” which is not secession, but some sort of democratic consociationalism 20 I POTENTIA 2012 DAY I THE REMEDIAL RIGHT OF SECESSION IN INTERNATIONAL LAW (Klabbers 189). What is the correct interpretation, from an international standpoint, of secession? Foundational documents of international law make reference to the right of a people to govern themselves, the most prominent examples being the League of Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) and the Declaration of the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. These documents each expand the legal claims of self-determination to all peoples. It therefore becomes imperative to genealogically trace the right of self-determination, and to determine under what circumstances peoples may seek external sovereignty and not merely internal arrangements. The principle of self-determination quickly became a cornerstone in the normative development in the field of human rights (Brownlie 228). Recognising the “yearning for freedom in all dependent peoples [who have a] right to freely determine their political status,” the UN has endorsed the concept that subjugated groups have the right to ‘replace their status’ with one of freedom (United National General Assembly Resolution 217A). The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also recognises an inherent right for ‘national’ self-determination, while Article 15 of the UNDHR affirms nationality as a fundamental human right. From the standpoint of international law, nationality and self-determination are the rights of individuals as well as solidarity or collective rights, as the Civil and Political Covenant indicates. This interpretation seems congruent with how the International Court of Justice refers to the right to self-determination, which defines it as “a right held by people rather than a right held by governments alone” (International Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion 12). The documents indicate that, as a collective right, peoples have a legal claim to their nationality and their status within a governmental institution. Yet to fully understand how these claims function legally, we must turn to precedent as a guide. One of the first advisory opinions issued by the Court concerned the colonial mandate relationship between South Africa and what is now known as Namibia (South-West Africa). Spanning from 1950 to 1971, the ICJ issued several opinions concerning the unequal apartheid-style development in Namibia, where white South Africa imposed restrictions and limitations solely upon grounds of national and ethnic origin. In 1966, the General Assembly, followed by the Security Council ordered the termination of the South-West African mandate, which was ignored by South Africa. The final opinion issued in 1971 by the Court confirmed that Namibia should be free from apartheid policy and recognised as an independent state. Namibia (1971) treats self-determination as an enforceable, tangible right – much POTENTIA 2012 I 21 DAY I THE REMEDIAL RIGHT OF SECESSION IN INTERNATIONAL LAW more than any nondescript “right to be taken seriously” (Klabbers, 186). With much flourish, Judge Ammoun concurred with the opinion, citing that no fewer than fifty- five states became independent since World War II because of how a principle of self-determination ‘matured’ with the ‘blood of the peoples’ (International Court of Justice, Namibia 69). Though the central issue of Namibia was not whether or not secession was legally justified, the case sets a strong precedent of support for persecuted peoples desiring self-governance – not one imposed from above. Namibia sets the stage for understanding self-determination as a way of giving self- governance to people violently denied it. In Western Sahara (1975), the court again refrained from condoning splitting up a state, but indicated that there is a strong legal claim for “the principle of self- determination as functionalised in the free and genuine expression of the will of the peoples of [a] territory” (International Court of Justice, Western Sahara 68). This penultimate line of the opinion inherently democratizes the concept of self- determination, but its application is also unique to a territorially defined group. The example of Western Sahara indicates that a people can lay claim to territory and, more importantly, remain free from outside intrusion – a key function of external sovereignty. Some scholars maintain that Western Sahara teaches a different lesson. Jan Klabbers argues that the court uses the term ‘principle’ as opposed to ‘right’, as a signal that self-determination does not have erga omnes implications, but operates as a suggestion (Klabbers 186-206). This interpretation
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